Let'sGoZips94

Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240. Having a ~100 or better win on the resume is much better than 150+, which is what this is matchup is shaping up to be. Should we be fortunate enough to win on Saturday and continue our run through the MAC, we will be flirting with 12/13 seed territory in March and this OOC matchup matters in that scenario. For the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge to work, there has to be incentive for the top teams in both conferences. Akron risks quite a bit more with little to gain vs. South Alabama which has everything to gain and very little to lose. The same goes for Arkansas St. and Troy on the Sun Belt side. They play Kent and Miami respectively, both are in the ~140 range, while the Arkansas St. is top 90 and Troy is top 110. I understand you're not always going to achieve perfect matchups (JMU/App St were top 70 teams last year while the MAC's best were maybe in the ~90-110 range at the time), but automatically eliminating strong matchups in the later part of the schedule isn't helping either conference's top teams.

Why would any G5 schools recruit high school QBs? The off-chance they play - and have success - as a freshman before transferring to a P4?

By the way, that Balls team lost to Dayton, at Dayton, during Dayton's prime of their season (they were so good in the beginning), by 8. I'd imagine Balls is much improved now, and Akron had the same margin of victory.

The MAC/Sun Belt Challenge needs to allow for rematches. It's rare, but I have seen instances with other teams' schedules where OOC teams play each other twice. Typically it stems from a regularly scheduled matchup coinciding with an early season tournament matchup. The first matchup in the challenge is always a guess of who the top teams will be. When the season is a week into February, it's no longer a guess. Quit spoiling guaranteed solid late-season matchups with the early season guess. The old school Bracketbuster matchups were the best because they were solely based around where the teams ranked at that point in the season. Arkansas State @ Akron for the rematch would be must-watch mid-major basketball. Instead, we get USA, and not in the greatest-country-in-the-world way. For any South Alabama fans that find our board, I mean no disrespect. It's just frustrating that this matchup went from being a potential top 100 game with a guaranteed Q3 resume building potential, to borderline Q4 which we have enough of on our schedule thanks to a garbage MAC. Side note: The MAC/Sun Belt Challenge should be for keeps. Winning conference gets the other conference's top school to join their conference the following year. I'm only half kidding as I would propose pretty much anything to get us away from Steinbrecher's awful leadership and Directional Michigans.

This is what I get for posting this in the wee hours of the morning after quick-glancing the ESPN box score. Stupid Disney...

Zips had 4 guys in double figures, none of whom were starters. Still put up 81 with zero starters in double figures. We. Are. Dangerous.

Our worst game at home in a while, Nate Johnson's worst game during MAC play, and we still score 81 to get the W. Wild.

Not a chuck em up from 3 game. We're really attacking the paint and being more methodical. Also need more defense than usual.

He has 6 pts which is about 6 pts more than I thought he'd have all game. I will take this production from him regardless of his FT shooting. Baby steps. Haha

Just about everything went Balls' way that half, and we're still up by 2. I like our chances of pulling away in the second half.

Amazing new intro video tonight.

Very interesting group of games tonight for the MAC. PCCC @ EMU - Kent looking to get back to .500 in MAC play and get ahead of the 8-seed race. WMU @ OU - WMU is part of the 4-5 mess and OU isn't much better at 5-4. Miami @ CMU - CMU is also part of the 4-5 mess. Miami is an underdog going into Mt. Pleasant.

He and Caserio (Texans GM) are very well connected. Good for Nick!

"Surly and fuchsia faced" could apply to Sendy and/or Mike Lewis.

I believe a wise man recently (loosely) said, "The Zips are like the Dodgers and Yankees. They're preventing everyone in the MAC from having success with all their resources and power."

Thank you. I will say their pace of play is not something I foresaw and is truly what our advantage is. There are very few teams in the country, let alone the MAC, with our depth and pace of play. While most teams have to shoot well (35%+ from 3 and 48%+ from the field), Akron can have sub par nights and still come out on top comfortably thanks to our volume. 30% from 3 and sub 48% from the field is equal to, if not greater than, the total point production of your average teaming shooting well. Kent is a great example because they were unconscious vs BG and still only scored in the 70s. Adding our scoring depth into the equation, we don't even rely on the same guys for that offensive production. As Groce said, we had 6 guys in double figures and it can be a different group of guys on any given night. This offense is so much fun to watch, and here's to hoping we can keep the training rolling into March. Big time potential should they be cutting the nights in Cleveland.

The standings as we go into February... Akron 9-0 Miami OH 8-1 Toledo 7-2 Ohio 5-4 WMU 4-5 Balls 4-5 CMU 4-5 KSUcks 4-5 EMU 4-5 BUGS 2-7 Canada 2-7 NIU 1-8 Kent is flirting with danger. OU is on a cusp of a season collapse. Imagine a world where Cleveland is absent of Kent and Ohio. A guy can dream, can't he?

According to Pinky, they're too poor to operate their own fan forum (shoutout @Captain Kangarooand those who fund ZN), so they're at the mercy of CSNbbs. It's back up but unfortunately the day's-long outage has prevented more funeral posts. The most recent post does mention that they have a couple guys who were supposed to be key factors not playing this season. Someone want to let them know about Josiah Harris?

For what it's worth, I thought a foul could've been called at the start of the layup motion. However, as a sane BobcatAttack poster said, the hoop was WIDE open after the contact. Should've made it.

It was rude of Ohio not to accept the gift. Miami is fortunate. The maimed Bobcats shot 36.8% from the field and 29.4% from 3, yet came within a missed potential game winning layup of knocking off the vaunted Redhawks. Athleticism continues to be an Achilles heal for Miami.

These are embarrassing comments for Pinky and Kent. From everything I've heard from Bud Wentz and those with knowledge of our NIL collective, it is not a buy-the-best type of system. Our NIL collective rewards players who want to be a Zip and commit to the Akron/Groce way - play hard, show humility, and be involved in the community. Those who do that will receive a solid long-term return on their investment (I believe Wentz has said part of the collective is designed to help alumni as long as they stay involved). Okonkwo was a P4 journeyman big man that played very sparingly at both WVU and UNC. Wilson was a deeper bench role player at WVU. Hardman was a benchwarming 3P specialist at Ohio State. Harris had a decent track record of success at WVU, but he's out for the season. Gray was a solid player for Cornell. I'm sure there was competition for these players, but I doubt many if any had legitimately lucrative offers from bigger programs. They chose to come to Akron because of what Groce can do for them, which is elevate them as young men and players. Groce designed this team like a master architect and provided them the patience and room to grow into the team they are today. Groce has owned Pinky/Kent ever since he filled the cupboards after his first year. NIL wasn't even a thing in the beginning. Freeman, Ali Ali, and Tribble were all homegrown. This is the first year we've made legitimate moves in the transfer portal (2019-20 was big, too, but that didn't involve NIL), and the only difference is we're scoring 85 when we beat Kent instead of 62. If Pinky wants NIL, maybe he shouldn't be coaching at a fashion-first school that has continually neglected its athletics outside of catching lightning in a bottle every once in a while. Or maybe he should go back to his roots of recruiting violations/cheating (didn't realize Steele was on that staff as well). Groce is 100x the coach Pinky is - I'm low-balling with that - and that's the sole difference between where Akron is with basketball and where Kent is. Cry more, clown.

I really wish TV announcers would quit sugarcoating or lying about the offseason Sullinger/VCD/Kent had. It really does a disservice to the general public by preventing them from seeing just how much of a clown show Kent's program is, especially under Pinky. Applauding their return in the "Portal era" without mentioning that both went looking for better and either didn't get what they wanted or couldn't get into what they wanted is annoying.

Rumor has it that braid distracted him on the test that would've gotten him into Furman.